Two times Jack left Ianto, One time Ianto left Jac
by ladyjane6313
Summary: Basically what the title says!  Can't really sum it up better than that.
1. Chapter 1

**Two times Jack left Ianto, and one time Ianto left Jack**

**Once - Jack**

He aimed a gun at him. It might not have been a real gun, but the words had wounded his boss, enough so, that similar wounds inflicted from the three other people there, in the high ceilinged dingy room, had killed their leader. He hadn't been the one to pull the trigger but he shared the blood that was on his hands equally with the others.

Guilty! They were all guilty! Then, when the world shifted, when the end seemed near their boss had risen from the dead.

Turns out he was immortal.

As hell rose from the dark molten depths of the earth, as it threatened to consume all it touched, his leader sacrificed himself to save his colleagues, even though they had betrayed his trust, he drained the beast of its power, giving up immortal power to protect the earth.

Nobody believed he would rise from the dead, as he had done the first time. It took days of hoping and praying, a soft kiss on cold lips and a silent declaration of love before a whispered raspy 'Thank you' was heard in the deafening quiet.

The man hugged the chilled body to his own, part in thankfulness and assuagement of guilt.

As he helped him dress he thought about how he could make this right, if he could make this right. His leader did not utter one word, but accepted the help when it was offered. His colour was bland, a white chalk coloured pallor, like an person on their sick bed.

He presented himself to his colleagues, who wept sorry, guilt ridden tears, mumbling apologies one by one as yet again he forgave them. He encouraged each to forget their betrayals, to patch things up and move on to the next adventure, together.

The young man approached his boss, who opened his arms and embraced the young man, wrapping him in an invisible but glowing warmth and aura, which if it had a colour would be glistening gold.

The young man felt lips close to his ear, felt a smattering of warm air brushing across the skin of his cheek.

"Thank you. I'll speak to you later...wait for me," he murmured in a low voice.

Things returned to normal after that. Back to how they'd been before as the day progressed.

The boss requested quiet, asking all to go outside, grab a coffee, not forgetting to get him one too. Then he was gone.

A year...a year that never was and three months. Three months his boss was missing and the guilt still rode his soul, until he eventually returned, changing but unchanged.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two times Jack left Ianto, and one time Ianto left Jack**

**Twice – Jack**

They were busy bickering, investigating the latest supernatural occurrence of the moment – which turned out to be a significant event to the whole world. Children, all stopping still, silent and staring at nothing until their voices rang out in synchronicity. WE. ARE. COMING. Hundreds of thousands of children, of all ages, speaking the same words at the same time, sounding hauntingly eerie.

Ianto lost the company vehicle on a rough council estate, even though it was fully equip to put off any would-be criminals from stealing it.

Jack insulted his daughter with his infrequent visit that coincided with the latest world disaster.

They gathered back at the Hub, Ianto meekly shy at his gross vehicular error. Jack still thoughtful of the conversation stemming from his recent conversation with his daughter.

Gwen, the only woman inhabiting the Hub these days had her hand on the body scanner in the autopsy bay. Her gaze fixed onto the wall above her that projected a slightly distorted image of her body and a small red spot alive in her pelvis.

Congratulations and jubilations were bounced around the red brick walls. So excited, Jack placed his hand over Gwen's, still on the scanner.

A bomb. He had a bomb in his stomach. He was immortal, yes, but he could never survive a blast from within that would tear his internal organs, muscle tissue and bone to shreds. Twist and contort the torn pieces of flesh as the blast plastered his organic matter to bricks and open space.

"There's a bomb, there's a bomb inside your stomach!" said Ianto, pointing out the obvious.

Jack forced Gwen to leave for the sake of herself and her unborn child.

"Get out!"

"No!" said Gwen fearing for Jack's safety, not knowing what to do for the best.

"Both of you," Jack demanded of his colleagues.

"No!" repeated Gwen for the second time.

"Right now!" said Jack raising his voice, as if shouting would make them move.

" It has a blast radius of one mile!" Ianto still intent on his computer screen, attempting to stop the inevitable.

" Right now! Get out!" Jack's last ditch attempt before using physical force.

" Look there must be something we can do. Look we can stop it. We can fix this ok, we can rip it out of you." Said Gwen trying to rationalist what was going on.

"I'm telling you. Get out!"

"It's active. Two minutes!"

"I can't just run, Jack."

" You're pregnant," pointing out the obvious, getting Gwen to realise that the red spot lodged in her pelvis was real.

Gwen stared directly into Jack's eyes, trying to decide exactly what she should do. Finally making a decision she stepped away from Jack, running out the door as fast as her legs would go.

Ianto refused to leave. He secured the building, as Gwen departed, so the city would stand a chance at being safe. Ianto desperately wanted to stay and help, but the blast would obliterate him too, and Jack refused to let that happen.

" Ianto, you're going to get locked inside. Ianto! Then you…"

Jack grabbed Ianto from behind, gripping his arms in a tight grip so he couldn't escape. Hauling him across the Hub, down concrete steps Jack gave Ianto no choice but to move, or be dragged.

"There must be a way to override the mechanism," shouted Ianto loudly so he could be heard over the noise of the lockdown in progress.

"For God's sake, get out!"

"There'll be nothing left of you!" Ianto cried out, distraught that this could be the last time he might see Jack.

"I can survive anything," Jack said noisily.

Pushing and shoving and cajoling Ianto towards the invisible lift he swung Ianto around to face him, seizing him roughly, pulling him close and kissing him deeply. That one kiss communicating all his thoughts and feelings, despair, love, fear of this last death.

Panicking at the lack of time Ianto had left to escape, Jack let Ianto go, stepped away and hit a button on his wrist, sending the invisible lift up towards the heavens. They kept eye contact all the way up.

"I'll come back. I always do," Jack promised Ianto, who was too far away to hear him, and more so himself. Thirty seconds after Ianto disappeared from view the world exploded. Jack felt himself rip apart with such horrific pain, as the bomb counted off its final second before he felt nothing at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Two times Jack left Ianto Pt III**

**Ianto Part I**

A lot of the day was spent pleasing people and dodging bureaucrats. They knew they had to save the children, Jack mindless of the dangers to either of them until it was too late. No chance of escape.

The two of them, and a building crammed with civil servants, trapped by a child capturing, drug taking monster. When faced with trying to reason with the creature, provocation wasn't the best way to go about their task, but Jack had met this creature before, and was angry at what he himself had done in the past, unwilling to let it happen a second time.

Arguing, fighting and pleading did not sway the beast in its mission to procure children, using them as easy drugs.

The creature itself got angry, focussed on taking its revenge, it locked down the building. It discreetly released atmospheric gas, the gas that kept it alive in the chamber it had ordered built, but it was poisonous to oxygen breathing life forms. The civilians rushed to escape the glass prison of Thames House, but, so distraught were they, they refused to die without a fight; pounding on the doors and emergency exits in a bid to escape death. The gas eventually consumed them, halting their intake of the vital oxygen they needed, to survive.

Too late, Jack realised Ianto was still in the building, and nothing he could do would save him.

"We've got to get you out of here. I can survive anything, but you can't!"

"Too late. I've breathed the air," said Ianto calmly, accepting whatever fate was going to throw at him.

"There's got to be something—there's got to be an antidote!" despair edged Jack's voice as he watched Ianto weaken before eyes.

The monster taunted Jack, "You said you would fight."

Raising to the bait Jack bite back, trying to fight for Ianto's life.

"Then I take it back, alright? I take it all back—_but not him_!"

Ianto continued to deteriorate, falling to his knees as weakness invaded his body. Jack sank down to his knees in a futile attempt to stop Ianto falling.

"No! No no no no no no no—no!. No. _Ianto_. No, no, no…"

Jack grappled to stop his lover and friend from falling even further to the ground.

Protecting Ianto, he cradled his head in his arms. He didn't believe in God, but he attempted to bargain for Ianto's survival, hearing only silence in answer.

Jack tilted his head so he could look at Ianto as he admitted he'd made a big mistake that had cost Ianto his life.

"It's all my fault."

"No it's not," reassured Ianto, who attempted a faint smile.

"Don't speak, save your breath."

Ianto struggled to take a breath, breathing poison into his lungs instead.

"I love you," Ianto confessed.

Jack shook his head, in denial, in an effort to keep his head clear.

"Don't," said Jack, willing Ianto to not say another word.

Ianto's eyelids drooped, and Jack shook him wildly trying to get Ianto to wake up.

"Ianto. Ianto? Ianto, stay with me. Ianto, stay with me _please_—stay with me, _stay with me_, _please_!"

Struggling, Ianto opened his eyes, looking directly into Jack's baby blues. Those beautiful eyes reflect Ianto's face, due to the moisture gathering in them. Ianto has never seen Jack cry before. He wants to stay strong for Jack, but knows that within minutes he'll be dead.

"Hey. It was—good, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Don't forget me."

"Never could," Jack smiled through watery tears cascading down his cheeks.

"A thousand years' time…you won't remember me."

"Yes I will. I promise, I will."

"Ianto. Ianto? Don't go. Don't leave me, please. Please, don't—"

As the last vestiges of his life ebbed away, a tear slipped past the young man's guard, rolling down one cheek as he expressed his love for the man who held him tenderly in his arms. He regretted having to leave Jack alone, but feared as well that he would be forgotten. Remembered only as a number amount the people that had died that day. Ianto never promised that he would return to Jack.

Clutching Ianto's still warm body to him Jack placed a gentle kiss on Ianto's lips and finally giving in to the toxin wreaking havoc through his body, Jack fell beside Ianto, still holding him.

For the millennia that passed after Ianto's death, Jack never did forget him. He always had a feeling of disappointment that he was never able to meet Ianto again in his dreams, or the afterlife. Although Jack yearned for Ianto many times in those years he never forgot, but always kept him in his heart.


End file.
